Welcome to 2024! January’s paper is full of great articles, programs, and events. I would like to welcome, Cara Chalmers our new contributor who will be offering advice on the everyday issues of life. Feel free to drop her an email with your question to cara@askcara.ca. (Published responses will be kept confidential). I’m very thankful for the numerous individuals who are committed to contribute positive community-building articles every month. Please take the time to thank them for their efforts.
Although we like things to remain status quo and strive for balance and equilibrium, the reality is that this New Year may have an unforeseen experience or change that we will face.
Change can be difficult to process. Author Darryl Conner states in his book, Managing at the Speed of Change, “it’s not the surprises in life that are so debilitating. The truly crushing force is being surprised that you are surprised”. Having had a massive, almost life ending heart attack last March, I‘ve had to make a lot of changes in life. At just over 50, a heart attack wasn’t part of the new year, “new you” plan. I’m now often asked, “Are you back to normal?” My children would argue that their father was never normal. The reality is that I don’t want to go back to being the person I was, nor managing life in that way. Life is now changed, and rather than try and be back to normal, it’s time to embrace something new.
You see, change can be thrust upon us, often in traumatic ways. Our desire is to bring things back to a normal state, and yes, sometimes there is a place for that. The challenge is embracing the change. We need to ask, “What do I or my organization need to become?” After the flood in 2013, my good friend Mark Kamachi, made this comment as it related to rebuilding our community: “We can’t waste a good flood”. I don’t want to waste a good heart attack. (My cardiologist reminds me I had a “good one” whatever that’s supposed to mean – I think she has a dark way of defining what’s good.) Trauma, although very difficult, can propel us into something new and positive when we embrace the changes that it brings. Yes, there are elements that we need to restore, but focussing too much on what was, causes us to lose sight of what needs to become.
One change that I have had to make for 2024, is that the High Country News and Harder and Sons administrative functions will operate out of my home in Redwood Meadows rather than in the Hamlet. We’ve had a physical presence in the community for the past 9 years. I have enjoyed the ability to have conversations with people who stop in to say hi or enquire of our services. This will be missed. The benefit is that I’ll be spending more time in the coffee shops as when you have 4 children and two adult children who use our home as their base of life, it isn’t always conducive for work. I want to personally thank my fellow tenants for putting up with our activity and especially Dick Koester for his support as a landlord and his commitment to see his tenants succeed.
As you start a New Year, I trust that you will thrive as you embrace the changes that come.
From my family to yours,
Lowell Harder
